Foreword:
Here's what a lot of folks have been wanting, access to The End. I'll admit that this is a long time coming and things haven't gone as planned in terms of progression. We have numerous ideas for the server but we are not well prepared when it comes to implementing them. Our collective idea was that we'd have a server event leading into The End, probably a scavenger hunt. Our second reason for the delay was that we weren't keen on letting Elytras be found in the wild and should be relegated for hard earned prizes so we explored ideas in relation to removing them automatically from the world. As time went on we repeatedly explored how to approach this event.

There isn't any single thing that led us, or rather myself, to just flat out open The End. This is the first time I've tried to actively moderate the server from the start. With the 1.8 server I became active towards the end where users were already settled and systems established. Starting fresh on 1.9 showed that we need to be better plan server events in advance. Hopefully when we start the server fresh again we are all better prepared from this experience.

On to the show!
July 16th is the tentative date for our End Event. This is not set in stone but it's what we're aiming for. If it happens a week early, that's cool. It will not happen next week or July 4th weekend so you should spend the following weeks practicing combat skills, enchanting armor and weapons, talk with your fellow players about tactics for slaying the dragon. Is someone going to bait? Is a team going to go and destroy the end crystals then attack from above?

You will need to be coordinated and strong. Endermen are furious beasts and found in vast numbers within The End. Devise tactics, form teams with set goals. Use this topic or create another topic if you wish to talk about it outside of Minecraft.

Upon slaying the dragon, the Egg will be placed in Spawn and the players will be immortalized as statues around it. Once the dragon is slain a portal will open to the rest of The End where Chorus Plants and End Cities may be found. I strongly recommend you bring tons of Ender Pearls to teleport you across the gaps that span the void. Feel free to build bridges and pathways for safer travels.

I hope to see you guys for this event!
If you have questions feel free to ask!

End rods will be awesome to have. I was thinking about how I wanted to light up the Track for Cemetech Speedway, and end Rods holding up Redstone Lamps is what I kept coming to. Looks like I will be able to move forward with that plan once the end is opened up and I can get a farm up and running.

Awe... I wish I could take part in this, summer vacation does get in the way sometimes :/

But anyways, seems fun, how will the portal to the other part of the end work? Will it be the natural one or will it be made by the
admins?
Also, will there be elytra in the end cities? I'm not sure if you mentioned that or not.

Anyways, I wish the best of luck defeating the dragon to those competing.

It will be the natural portal. Players may build a stair case up to the portal so it's easier to throw an Ender Pearl through or, if they're feeling ambitious, build a bridge from the Ender Island to the rest of the world (which could be >1000 blocks long).



End Cities were far and few between when I flew around, and they were only one building not a bunch. I did use the seed from the server but since we have modified biome sizes that I didn't replicate in Single Player, the End may be different once it's generated on the server. I could fly around before hand and investigate and regenerate the world until we get some decent End Cities.

Additionally, Elytras do not spawn in End Cities. Okay, technically they do but they spawn in End Ships which are found in/near End Cities. Elytras will be available in The End.

Horray! That's been the single item I've wanted the most on the server, especially since I live on a mountain I can't wait for the End event, hopefully I'll be able to take part.

So, basically the only thing we've heard is "I want an Elytra". Because we didn't succeed in getting everyone aware and rallying around the idea of a big End event and a dragon fight this weekend, we're currently not planning to open the End today. If everyone would be interested in a big event tomorrow, please post and let us know so that we can plan and execute it. Otherwise, we'll postpone it until next weekend, and try to build some hype in the meantime.

Come on people! I'd love to slay me a dragon tomorrow!

I'd like to know when there's going to be another dragon fight. I suggest that each battle expands The End's borders by 100 blocks on each side. Either that, or the admins give an Elytra to anybody who defeats a dragon on their own.

My understanding is that we (the moderators and administrators) agreed that the Elytra should be extremely rare; I doubt we'll be giving any away. Before the End was opened, there was a single Elytra awarded, and that was only the extremely hard-to-find bonus prize of a scavenger hunt. I too would like there to be more dragon fights soon, though. Isn't that we as players can achieve by making the proper crystals?

Elemental, I'd love to see that video of our End rush when you have a chance to edit it!

Yup. Players are more than welcome to respawn the dragon themselves. I've entertained the idea of spawning 2 or more dragons at once but purely for entertainment; I think a few players were eager to attempt this as well. But as it stands, the only way for Elytras to be obtained now is through scavenger hunts or other events.

There have been talk of Abba tournaments, PvP tournaments and other stuff. The top prize of each of these could be an Elytra, depending on the amount of participants. Sadly, Abba participation has dwindled and PvP Arenas seems impossible to allow in the over-world since I can't enable PvP (it works in the Nether for some reason). I've tried enabling PvP in the server config and in Towny plots, nothing seems to work.

The moderation team and admins are all ears for event ideas and prizes are purely based on participation; an Elytra won't be a prize for a 5 person elimination-style abba tournament over a few weekends, for example.